Budget unlimited prepaid wireless

Bottom line

Straight Talk is owned by TracFone, which uses all
four of the national carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint) to provide
nationwide service. Limited and unlimited plans are offered, as are plans and
add-ons that provide international service. Network performance can vary
widely, however, depending on which network is providing your service, and
customer service earns few friends.

Plans and flexibility

Cheap plans, unlimited (mostly)
service. Straight Talk's Unlimited plan (Est. $45 for 30
days) includes unlimited talk, messaging and data. Like many plans, high-speed
data is capped at 2.5 GB per 30 days, but unlike some carriers, such as
T-Mobile, for example, no option to pay more and get all the high-speed data
you want is offered. You can cut your costs by opting to buy more months of
coverage in advance -- for example, one year of service costs $495.
International calling isn't part of the basic Straight Talk plans, but an
International Unlimited Plan (Est. $60 per month) adds calls to over 1,000
countries to the package. Another option is a $10 global calling card, which
can be added to any service plan. If you don't need unlimited service, Straight
Talk offers the All You Need plan (Est. $30 for 30 days), with 1,000 minutes of
talk time, 1,000 text or picture messages and 30 MB of data. Those minutes and
services expire every 30 days, and unused portions don't roll over to the next
month.

Performance

Award winning. Straight Talk wins the 2013 Readers' Choice award at PCMag.com. Users
benefit from the extensive network and high call quality of its parent company,
TracFone. It's highly rated at Viewpoints.com, where users praise its strong
signal and good value.

Customer service

Poor customer service all round. Customers gripe about Straight Talk's customer service. Although Straight Talk's strong signal and low
price make it a favorite among users posting at Viewpoints.com, about a third
of them complain of inadequate customer service and trouble porting over their
old phone numbers -- the same complaints Straight Talk earns from customers at PrepaidReviews.com. Older
reviews complain that data caps were not adequately explained, but those are
now posted on the carrier's website.

Phone selection

Many of the latest phones. Straight Talk has updated
its phone selection and now offers basic and Android phones as well as the
iPhone 5S (Est. $550 and up). Various models of Samsung
Galaxy and other Android phones are available, including the latest Samsung
Galaxy S4 (Est. $600), and there's a good selection of basic phones, with some
of the reconditioned ones offered at no cost. You can also bring your own compatible
and unlocked GSM phone and purchase a SIM card for $7.

Our Sources

1. ConsumerReports.org

Each year, ConsumerReports.org surveys its
membership regarding their happiness with their cell phone provider. Straight
Talk is among the eight prepaid cell phone providers that are rated and ranked.

Review: Cell Phones and Services, Editors of ConsumerReports.org, September 2013

2. J.D. Power and Associates

This study focuses only on pay-as-you-go wireless
plans. J.D. Power and Associates questions over 5,000 wireless subscribers, who
rate their wireless purchase experiences made by phone calls to sales
representatives, visits to retail stores or online. Straight Talk receives the
lowest score, but is not alone as two other prepaid providers rate just as
poorly.

This article addresses overall satisfaction with
cell phones and cell phone service as reported by PCMag.com readers in 2013.
Straight Talk is awarded the Reader's
Choice award for prepaid carriers, followed by MetroPCS; both receive an
above-average overall score. A useful chart shows how
each service stacks up in a dozen categories, including coverage, price,
network speed and reliability and handset choices.

Straight Talk Unlimited is at the top of MyRatePlan.com's
list of best no-contract cell phone plans for 2013, according to this news
release posted at PRWeb.com. Price, data speed and limits, and coverage, as
well as consumer reviews and expert opinions, are considered in compiling the
list.

This website rates 28 prepaid wireless providers.
The highly detailed write-ups are based on an evaluation of features and prices
and not on testing, but the information appears to be accurate. Straight Talk
is one of four carriers to earn 4.5 stars out of 5. Write-ups include extensive
detail about features such as roaming charges and data plans.

Saabedra recounts his two years of experience using
Straight Talk. He concludes that, despite problems with customer service,
arbitrary data limits that weren't explicitly explained (the company now posts
those on its website) and "very little in the way of transparency when
taking terms and conditions into account," he's glad that he went with the
carrier.

Straight Talk is a highly rated prepaid phone plan
at Viewpoints.com, where users praise its strong signal and good value. But
about a third of the over 270 reviewers complain about poor customer service
and limited handset choices.

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